Fitting in is Hard to Do
by LizzyLovesPink
Summary: After the recent Arrancar appearance, Renji and Rukia form a group of the highest trained Shinigami to investigate the Human World to keep it safe from more threats. However, no amount of training could've prepared these poor souls for the most terrifying threat ever-modern technology! Set during the 6th season/Arrancar Arc/Hitsugaya Advance Team Arc or whatever it's called.


These past few weeks, Karakura Town has been subject to several strange occurrences, all seeming to start when that meteor crater was found just on the east side of town. Other strange events have followed, mainly in the form of vast destruction widespread throughout the town. Most say it has astronomical origins, these events, although precious few believe it is the work of spirits or monsters.

Some claim that these events can be traced back to a mysterious group of students who enrolled at the local high school and left without a trace last week, leaving no files or proof they ever existed.

This is a recap of those same events that gripped Karakura Town tightly last month, in September 2001. Watch these scenes and then decide for yourself, who you think is to blame...

###########

"So _that's_ why you six came back here to the human world," Ichigo finished for the six Shinigami, who were all dressed in his high school's uniform. They simply nodded in seriousness.

"We're sent here to investigate these new Arrancar Aizen's created. We have no idea about how strong they could be or even what they look like, so we're keeping our guard up." Rukia explained.

"Oh, but don't worry about us! We'll be very well-behaved! It'll be like we're not here at all!" Rangiku winked, her large breasts bouncing.

"After that show you guys put on at school earlier, I feel like blending in is out of the question," Ichigo stated bitterly. "It's getting late. We can discuss this further tomorrow morning. Do you have anywhere to sleep? You guys can't sleep at my house, there's no room."

"Are you sure about that? I'm sure you could make some room _somewhere_ for a girl like me...no, a woman like me." Rangiku teased, unbuttoning more of her blouse and leaning on Ichigo's bedpost. He instantly blushed and jumped up.

"No! The only person who is living here is Kuchiki-san!" He announced, making Rukia look over at him.

"Fine, I'll just go sleep over at Orihime-san's house!" Rangiku said cheerfully, buttoning her blouse back up and running out of the room.

"I can go find a place to sleep at Urahara-san's place, probably. I have a few questions for him..." Renji stated before leaving.

"We can take care of ourselves. Don't worry about it." Ikkaku said simply before leaving the room with Yumichika. Toshiro bowed and left as well, mumbling something that nobody could make out. After everybody finally left, Ichigo flopped back down onto his bed.

"Those five are a handful." He said, watching Rukia set up her bed in his closet. He sat up at this and glared at her. "And just what do you think you're doing? Just because you're living here doesn't mean you can live in my closet again!"

She glared right back at him and jumped off the shelf. "But that's my bed! Where else am I supposed to sleep?"

"With my sisters, or on the couch. Anywhere that isn't in here." Rukia kept glaring at him, but when he repeated his statement about the Soul Reapers, she sighed.

"Give them some leeway, they're out of their natural setting! Anybody who'd lived their lives in the Soul Society for so long would be disoriented. Remember when I first came here?" There was a hint of a smile in her voice, although it didn't physically manifest.

"At least tomorrow's a half-day at school. We can get some new clothes for them, introduce them to life as a human, things like that. Of course we'd also make sure to put them to work. Is that something they have in the Soul Society? Work?" Ichigo glanced up at Rukia, who was tossing her shoes onto the floor neatly.

"Huh? Depends on the type of work you're thinking of."

"Housework."

"Oh..." Rukia thought about it. "Squad 4 is known for cleaning, but the other ones, not so much. They have more important things to focus on."

"Well then, tomorrow is sure to be an adventure for them, won't it?" Ichigo couldn't help but to smirk a bit. He wouldn't hurt them, no way. He'd _never_ get away with that because of how powerful they were! Instead, he was thinking a bit more like...roughing them up with chores and homework. Human things. This would be fun, indeed. Ichigo had fallen asleep thinking about everything, but Rukia stayed awake most of the night, trying to make plans for how everything would go.

When she did fall asleep, she didn't even change; she simply fell asleep in her uniform, with a sketchpad in her lap. She really did work herself too hard sometimes.

############

The next morning, both Ichigo and Rukia woke themselves up super early, then got dressed in their school uniforms and scooted downstairs for breakfast.

When they got downstairs, they found Ichigo's younger sister, Yuzu, making lunches for the two, and Rukia smiled at her.

"How about you eat your breakfast? I'll take these over," She offered nicely, but Yuzu clutched Ichigo's lunch-bag protectively.

"No, I got it!" She insisted.

"How about I help you then? If I help, it'll get done quicker!"

"Alright!" Yuzu smiled at this, and pushed Rukia's lunch-bag over to her."You can make your own!"

"Okay, but let me look at Ichigo's when you're done, okay? I have some ideas in mind..." Rukia smiled slyly, eyeing a rabbit head laying on the kitchen's top shelf. Not a real one, of course, but a mold for rice. Yuzu simply nodded, and the two started working on the lunches together.

Soon, that was done, and Rukia waved goodbye to Ichigo's sisters before running to catch up with him for school. "Your sisters are so nice! Especially Yuzu-chan!" She gushed.

"Yeah. They're always like that though," Ichigo responded simply before reaching the school's front gate. Also standing there was Orihime, with her own Soul Reapers in tow.

"Morning, Kurosaki-kun!" She greeted brightly. "Are you happy today's a half-day?"

"Yes, we'll need all the time we have to teach everyone how to properly blend in." Ichigo stated, motioning to the two Soul Reapers.

"I think we blend in just fine!" Toshiro retorted in annoyance.

"Hey, you slept on Orihime-chan's roof last night!" Rangiku playfully reminded him, giving him a small push.

"Let's go inside before we're late," Rukia suggested, making Rangiku gasp.

"I just remembered! We're not in your class! They assigned Yumichika-chan and all of us to a third-year class because of how mature we look! Only Captain Hitsugaya is in the same class as you!" She explained.

"Why do I always have to be put in the same class as the weirdos?" Ichigo demanded, making Toshiro glare at him.

"Oh, but I'm sure we could still eat lunch together, right? There's no rule against that!" Orihime reassured everyone.

"Let's just get to class." Toshiro said, and everyone else followed him, Rangiku soon branching off and running upstairs to a different classroom. Ichigo and his group entered their own class and sat down at their usual desks, and Ichigo rolled his eyes slightly when he saw Toshiro sit in the seat directly behind his own. Instead of trying to talk to anybody, the white-haired Shinigami stared out the window, deep in thought.

A few minutes later, their teacher arrived, and she simply adjusted her glasses and grinned at the students. "Alright everyone, I hope you had a great break, it's nice to be back, and now it's time to see how much knowledge you retained over break!" She said in a rush. "Time to take a test, and you all knew this test was coming since before break, so I don't want to hear anybody complaining!"

"Test?" Ichigo heard Toshiro wonder from behind him, but figured he'd be alright. He was, like, one hundred years old or something, and this was a literature class. As long as the questions didn't cover super ancient novels, he'd be just fine.

###########

Several hours later, it was finally time for lunch, and most of the students dispersed out of the room to enjoy their lunch outside. As expected, Rangiku and her group showed up for lunch, sitting in some chairs that Rukia provided for them.

"All that work was so exhausting! I'm not cut out for this 'school' thing!" Renji declared, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

"Where's lunch?" Rangiku asked, making Ichigo and his friends all look at each other.

"In the Soul Society, everybody eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a cafeteria, every day. Every Squad has their own, but the food is provided for us," Rukia quickly explained.

"So lunch isn't provided for us here?" Toshiro very quickly pieced together, and Ichigo's group slowly shook their heads. As usual, Orihime piped up first and thrust her lunch-bag in Rangiku's face.

"Here, you can have mine, Rangiku-chan! I'm not very hungry." She stated cheerfully with her usual smile.

"Thanks! What is it?" Rangiku asked, dumping out the bag's contents.

"Just some leftovers from last night. Barbecue-bacon pineapple pizza, there's a slice of that, pork-flavored ramen, leeks roasted in ketchup and cheese, and orange juice!"

"Ick!" Everyone protested except for Rangiku, who grinned.

"Sounds delicious!" She started drinking the thermos of orange juice.

"Here, you two can have mine and Ichigo's lunch!" Rukia offered, pushing their lunches to Ikkaku and Yumichika. "It might not be to your tastes, but it's still better than nothing!"

Yumichika opened the bag and instantly got hearts in his eyes over the bunny-shaped rice Rukia made earlier. "Did you do this? It's so cute! I love it!" He started eating it happily, while Ikkaku simply shrugged and started eating his.

"Beats not eating anything." He decided.

"Here." Yasutora said simply, pushing his lunch over to Renji, who thanked him. "I do not have Japanese food, so I apologize in advance."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'll eat anything," Renji reassured him.

The only Shinigami who didn't have any food was Toshiro, and everyone slowly turned to look at Uryu, who was unloading his lunch, bought straight from the convenience store: a sub sandwich, a bag of chips, and a juice box. He realized everyone was staring at him, and adjusted his glasses. "Don't even think about it."

"Awww, but Ishida-kun, Toshiro-san needs to eat too! Please give him your lunch?" Orihime asked nicely with a small smile. Uryu looked from her to Toshiro, then back again, several times before finally sighing and slowly pushing his lunch over to the white-haired Captain.

"Thank you." Toshiro commented simply before picking up the juice box and looking it over, wondering how to open the strange contraption. He tried to squish the juice out, then pop it open with his fingernail, but nothing worked.

After four maddening minutes of watching Toshiro struggling, Uryu finally took the juice box back, stabbed it open with the straw, and handed it back to the captain, who stared at it in wonder.

"I know, isn't it cool? When I came here, I didn't know how to open juice boxes either, but now, I'm a master at it!" Rukia praised with a peace-sign.

"Don't encourage them." Ichigo complained.

"I got in so much trouble in class earlier!" Rangiku lamented, eating her ramen. "All I did was get up to use the outhouse, and the teacher told me I wasn't allowed to just randomly leave! Can you believe that?"

"Well, you can understand a bit of authority. You're a Lieutenant.I'm sure they have the same sort of rules at your meetings, right? No leaving without explicit permission from the leader?" Uryu asked, but his face dropped when Rangiku shook her head.

"At captain and lieutenant meetings, we don't really ask permission for things like that." Renji explained. "We have such a high rank that Head Captain Yamamoto knows he can't do much to control us. Third-seats and below are more tightly controlled by their captains and lieutenants both, not to mention the Head Captain, but that's only because they're not considered to be very strong and therefore not as privileged."

"Also, we don't have an outhouse here. We have-" Uryu started to explain, only to get caught off by the sound of the students coming back into the classroom, along with their teacher.

"Awww, I guess that means lunch is over now!" Yumichika stated, standing up. "I'm excited for my next class though!"

"Oh, right, you have Fashion Design and Textiles with me, don't you?" Rangiku asked, and Yumichika nodded. "It'll be so much fun! I'm totally going to design a pink sequined ball gown for the next Full Moon Dance!"

"I'm going to start small and design a violet handbag to carry my zanpakuto in. It'll make Yachiru-chan so jealous!" Yumichika gushed.

"Hey! Seniors! Get out of this class!" The teacher yelled at them, and Rangiku's group quickly cleared out, leaving only Toshiro and Ichigo's group.

"At least this is the last class. Then we can go home." Ichigo sighed, sitting back down at his regular desk.

Everyone else sat down as well and the class begun. It was a freshmen-only class, Algebra I. Despite this, Toshiro seemed to get the hang of it quite easily, as expected. Perhaps Ichigo was over-thinking how hard it would be to teach these Soul Reapers human customs, since they were all smart in their own way. Perhaps, just perhaps, they'd be all right.

############

Ichigo and Rukia went home right after school, bringing along Orihime and all the Shinigami, the latter of which all plopped down on Ichigo's couch first thing. "Let's go to the mall and go shopping!" Orihime suggested cheerfully.

"Perfect. We could get them some next clothes." Ichigo agreed.

"Oh, won't you come with us, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked, but Ichigo threw his wallet at her in response.

"Ishida-san gave us a list of things he wanted us to get for them. Some are brands of clothes too!" Rukia said, waving it.

"Why is he so concerned about them?" Ichigo demanded.

"At least he's helping us! I'd be more concerned if he wasn't! He even gave up his lunch today!" Rukia shot back.

"Only because Inoue-san made him." Ichigo pointed out.

While the trio talked, they failed to notice the five Soul Reapers staring wide-eyed at Ichigo's television set, which was average-sized but still had a nice screen.

"What do you think it is?" Rangiku asked, tapping it.

"Reminds me of something I read about in a novel once." Toshiro said. "It took old novels and projected them on a digital screen, so you could see the novel instead of reading it!"

"What do you think this does?" Yumichika asked, picking up the remote off the coffee table and pressing a button on it.

Suddenly, the TV blinked on, scaring the five out of their wits. This alerted the other three to their predicament, and Rukia giggled slightly.

"It's just a television set! It sends and detects satellites in space, and those waves communicating with each other is what you see on the screen-the picture! Captain Hitsugaya's right, it lets you see stories instead of reading them!" She explained happily, only to get blank stares in return from the Shinigami.

"Maybe you could draw them another picture!" Orihime unhelpfully added.

"If you're going to go shopping at the mall, you better hurry. It closes in only a few hours." Ichigo suggested before leaving for the kitchen.

"Ooooh, are you getting snacks? I want to help!" Orihime offered, happily following him inside.

"I need to count this money," Rukia stated, although she simply leaned against the wall and started counting it out that way.

Since the five Soul Reapers weren't supervised, they soon erupted into a huge argument over what they should watch on TV, since everyone had different tastes.

"We should watch some sort of romance or soap opera! They're my favorite! I'm so used to making up my own in my head as I read them, but now I can actually see them!" Rangiku gushed, swiping the remote from Ikkaku and switching the channel.

"No way! I want to watch some sort of fashion show so I can compare my graceful looks to whatever hideous designs they have on there!" Yumichika stated, climbing over both Toshiro and Ikkaku to grab the remote from Rangiku.

"What about a war movie? Those are classics!" Ikkaku suggested, making the other three stare at him in disgust.

"How about the news? Anybody?" Toshiro asked quietly, almost under his breath.

"Pick something, or else turn the TV off. Otherwise, it'll break, and then you all really will have nothing to watch!" Ichigo snapped from the kitchen, but they ignored him.

"Let's watch what I wanna watch!"

"No way, your shows are trash!"

"You're trash!"

"Those are fighting words!"

"Guys..." At this point the remote had been thrown onto the floor in all the ruckus as Rangiku and Yumichika tried to launch themselves at each other as their friends and partners tried desperately to keep them apart. Even Orihime peeked out of the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Knock it off, all of you!" Ichigo snapped louder, making the five stop what they were doing in sudden shock and stare at him.

"Ichigo-san!" They all announced.

"At least try to not fight each other while you're here, alright? I don't want anything broken in my house. Or anything on you either! Remember, you were sent here to fight Hollows, not mess around, so I expect you guys to act more seriously."

"Of course we'll be serious!" Toshiro promised with a nod. "At least, I will be. Don't have to worry about me!"

Rangiku picked the remote off the floor and turned the TV off right as a juice commercial popped on, making the five surround Ichigo. "Oh yeah! We were in such a rush that we totally forgot to use the chamber pot! Where's yours?" She asked nicely.

"Down the hall on your left, third door." He answered in a bored tone, and the five Soul Reapers jumped off the couch and ran off just as Rukia finished counting the money.

"We have enough for their clothes! When they're done in the bathroom, we can get going." She grinned.

"This'll be so much fun! I can't wait to pick out clothes for them!" Orihime gushed. "By the way, Kuchiki-san, do Soul Reapers change their clothes? Last night, Rangiku-chan was so surprised when she saw me in my normal clothes instead of the uniform I changed out of. She said my clothes weren't dirty, so I had no reason to change! What's up with that?"

"We Soul Reapers don't change clothes very much. We have several versions of this same robe in our wardrobes, modified due to our preferences, of course, and we all sleep in our underwear. For a special event, such as a dance, we wear super fancy kimonos or dresses, but those events are rare." Rukia explained.

Before Orihime could respond, however, she was interrupted by the loud calls of five distinct voices in the bathroom:

"ICHIGO-SAN!" They all yelled at once. "What is this white, oval-shaped basin in here? It _looks_ like a chamber pot, except it's filled with water! Do you use it like a chamber pot? How do we get rid of the waste after we use it? After all, it's currently empty!"

"They haven't learned about toilets yet, it seems." Rukia commented, trying her hardest to keep a straight face.

"And it looks like I'm the one who gets to do the honors." Ichigo finished, walking over to the room which housed said toilet, knocking on the door. "How can all five of you fit in there at the same time?" He couldn't help but to question, although this got no answer. "You use it just like a chamber pot, except when you're done, well...do you see that white lever on the side? You push it down and the waste goes away. That's the best I can really explain it...good luck!" He walked off, leaving the four Shinigami to their own devices.

Of course, they managed to fit all five of themselves into the small enclosure; they all were scaling the walls while keeping their balance on the toilet seat. After Ichigo described how to use it, they all looked at each other.

"Who wants to go first?" Rangiku offered nicely.

"Ladies first, you know what they say," Ikkaku grinned, resulting in Rangiku's foot going into his stomach.

"Since when did you become a gentleman?" Toshiro asked, dodging a kick thrown his way by Ikkaku.

"Don't fight in here! We'll slip and fall in there!" Yumichika demanded, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want to get soaked!"

"At least you guys aren't leaning dangerously on the door!" Renji yelled back at them. "Watch your kicking!"

"I wonder how the waste goes away though..." Toshiro wondered, looking down into the bowl. As he looked, Rangiku absentmindedly laid her hand down on the flush and pushed it down, resulting in all the water swirling away with a loud noise.

"What was that?" She asked in shock, looking around and pinning herself to the wall.

"It must be how the waste is removed. Makes sense, it's a suction device." Toshiro explained, as if it made perfect sense all along. "Now all of you, out! I'm the youngest, so I get it first!" He pushed the older Soul Reapers out with an amazing bout of strength and slammed the door in their faces, making them all wait. After a few minutes had passed, however, all five of them had their chance and were quite proud of themselves for mastering this modern 'chamber pot' so quickly.

"Let's get going, everyone!" Rukia said happily when they all came out of the bathroom.

"Yay! Shopping!" Rangiku and Yumichika cheered at the same time.

Orihime smiled back at them, then waved goodbye to Ichigo and led the group outside, five of the six Soul Reapers very curious to know where Earth humans bought their clothes at.

############

The trip to the mall was surprisingly short, since Ichigo lived near downtown, so the walk only took about half an hour. Once they got inside, the five Shinigami were instantly overcome by their emotions, nearly passing out on the spot due to everything they were seeing. They all instantly ran off, making Orihime and Rukia panic and split off to find them to make sure they didn't inadvertently destroy anything or cause a scene in their excitement. Luckily, they were easy to find, but rounding them up was a different issue entirely.

Orihime found both Rangiku and Yumichika in the first shop she looked in; a clothing store.

"Look at all the variety! We could have so many clothes to wear instead of just having the same black kimono every day!" Rangiku gushed, holding a short yellow sundress up to her figure.

"I know! I wonder how much of this stuff we'll actually be allowed to buy? I sure hope it's a lot!" Yumichika agreed, running over to a shoe display.

"There you two are!" Orihime said happily, waving at them. "You guys ran off in such a hurry! What are you looking at?"

"Everything!" The two answered at once simultaneously.

"Look if you want, but Kuchiki-san has the wallet so we'll have to find her first before we buy anything," Orihime explained, looking at a small display of jeweled hair clips. Rangiku and Yumichika ran around as well, loading their arms down with the nicest designer clothes they could find.

"Orihime-chan! You should tell us how we look in these!" Rangiku suggested, and Orihime smiled and nodded, running over to the dressing rooms. She sat down on a bench in front of them and waited for the two to get dressed individually and come out.

They came out at the same time, both dressed in fancy evening-wear. "How about this?" Rangiku teased, running her fingers along her lips.

"Looks like a dinner date!" Orihime giggled.

The second time, they were both dressed in punkish school uniforms. Rangiku posed with her hands on her legs, bending over sideways slightly. "Get out of our school," She said in a threatening tone.

"You're good at getting into your outfit's personality!" Orihime noticed.

"Of course! We wouldn't be so fashionable if we weren't!" Yumichika bragged, flipping his hair.

"I like these, can we buy them?" Rangiku asked, motioning to the uniform. Orihime nodded and stood up.

"Can I please pick something for you guys though? That way you'll have my own personal touch!" She winked. The duo looked at her light green tank top and her breezy white skirt that went to her knees, patterned with yellow wild-flowers and green grass, and her white sandals, and figured she could do no harm. They nodded and she smiled more. "Perfect! Come on, let's go!"

The duo gathered up their regular uniforms and followed Orihime, who had already picked out a bright yellow sweater with long sleeves and violet pants for Rangiku. "Don't these colors look good together? I think so!" She smiled, and Rangiku faked one back.

"Oh, right! They do! Although that sweater looks too warm for mid-September..."

"You'll be fine! What else do you need? Oh yeah! Shoes!" She ran over to a rack and tossed a pair of violet heels at Rangiku, then a silky pink scarf. "Perfect! Put those on and let's see how you look!" Rangiku nervously left to do so and Orihime looked at Yumichika. "As for you...what would a guy like you want to wear? All the guys I know dress either professionally or like punks!"

"I can pick my own-!" Yumichika started to protest, but was silenced by Orihime tossing a pair of sapphire-colored sneakers at him.

"Do you want jewelry?" She hit herself on the head. "What kind of a question is that? Of course you don't!" She tossed a tight pair of dark blue jeans at him, and a frilly white shirt with sleeves shaped like feathers. "That'll look good on you! Try it on!"

##########

Meanwhile, Rukia first checked the bookstore, finding Toshiro there. He looked over when he heard her approach. "Look at all the books here! There must be a thousand or something!" He said in amazement.

"There might be even more than that," Rukia smiled. "Do you want to buy one?" She offered, pulling the wallet out.

"A book about current events could be helpful so I don't look clueless when people ask me my thoughts on the current state of the world," He commented, and Rukia nodded. She looked around in the magazine and newspaper section and found several current events ones, so she grabbed some of those. She also grabbed a sports magazine for Renji and Ikkaku, and a fashion magazine for Rangiku and Yumichika. She went back to Toshiro, who was waiting for her at the register. She paid for them and started to walk out of the store with Toshiro, only to accidentally walk right into somebody.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Rukia instantly apologized when she noticed the person's books had gone falling to the floor. "Here, I'll help you." She looked up and noticed the person she ran into was a girl, with glasses and a long silky black braid. She stiffened at Rukia's offer of help, but made no move to stop her.

"I smell something...strange." Toshiro suddenly announced, making the girl stiffen up more.

"I can pick up my books myself," She suddenly stated, shoving Rukia out of her way and hurriedly picking all her books up, reforming a perfect stack in her arms. "Stay away from me if you ever see me again." The girl threatened in a whisper, obviously directed at the two of them. With that, she adjusted her glasses and walked rapidly away from the bookstore.

"What was her problem?" Rukia scoffed, thinking about the girl's choice of attire. It was so strange and outdated...she was wearing a school uniform, yes, but it resembled the old sailor-style uniforms of the 1990's. Perhaps she went to a private school and just liked those clothes for her daily wear?

"All I said was that I smelled something strange." Toshiro shrugged, walking out of the bookstore.

"Maybe she doesn't shower. You should know better than to say such things in public." Rukia scolded.

"No, not like that. I felt strange too. I smelled a Hollow, and felt a strong negative energy. Almost like...that girl was a Hollow of some sort."

"Captain Hitsugaya..."

"It couldn't be...I won't trouble you with these thoughts." Toshiro decided, looking around. Rukia sighed, but left the topic alone.

"I wonder where the others went off to?" She wondered. "Renji is most likely at a sports outfitter's or a sunglasses store, but Ikkaku-san..." Before she could finish her sentence, her blood ran cold when she heard an all-too-familiar roar., the roar of a Hollow. But how and why was one there? Without really thinking, she dropped the bag and ran off, looking for the others to warn them. Toshiro followed close behind her.

She ran into the clothing shop, finding Orihime gushing over the new outfits she must've picked out for Rangiku and Yumichika, who were standing around looking miserable. After seeing Rukia's expression, however, they changed their own and became serious.

"A Hollow? Here in the mall? Is it a regular one or an Arrancar?" Yumichika asked anxiously.

"I can't tell, but judging by its roar, I'd say it's just a regular one. Still, we can't let our guard down around it!" Rukia commanded.

"Come on, let's go fight it!" Rangiku directed, and they all nodded and popped their Gikon into their mouths, then told them to go hide as they ran over to the food court to check out what made that roar. Orihime followed close behind them, not wanting to be left out of the action.

When they got to the food court, they found it was just a regular Menos, but it had already caused a huge commotion and tore up most of the food court.

"There's the Hollow you smelled, there!" Rukia teased slightly, earning her a dirty look from Toshiro. He simply unleashed his Bankai and flew up to the Menos, breathing his frost breath over its nose, then breaking it off with a quick strike of his sword.

"Don't forget about me!" Rangiku grinned, unsheathing her zanpakuto. "Growl, Haineko!" She sent a wave of blinding ash over into the Menos' eyes, which allowed Toshiro to freeze another body of its body and hack it off without resistance.

"Hey! Come and get me!" Rukia yelled at the Hollow, trying to distract its attention away from the higher-ranking worked, and Rukia quickly flipped herself onto a table and grabbed the bottle of wasabi, then jumped back into the air again. While she was still flying, she opened the bottle up and let it all splatter into the Menos eyes again, rendering it permanently blinded.

Despite this, however, it could still sense her high spiritual pressure, and reached out its claw and slashed Rukia deeply on her stomach, knocking her down and making Orihime gasp. "Kuchiki-san!" She cried, running over to her and throwing a shield over her. "Are you alright?" She sent her two fairies out to check on Rukia, and found that while the cut was deep, it wasn't bleeding as badly as it should've been.

"I'm not hurt _that_ badly," Rukia insisted, smiling weakly. "It's my durability!" She winced in pain.

Meanwhile, Renji showed up, sporting a huge grin on his face. "Did I miss anything?" He asked happily, although once he saw Rukia's current condition, it quickly melted. "Did you do this? Now you've made me mad!" He took a soccer ball that he bought earlier off his back. "I don't even care I don't have my real body, I'm still going to beat you!" He kicked the ball really hard at the Hollow, making it pick up a good amount of speed. Somehow, it barely affected the Hollow other than making it really angry, and it rapidly advanced on the Shinigami, who grouped themselves into a tight circle to quickly think of a plan.

"You're a warrior, attack it!" Yumichika demanded of Ikkaku.

"With what? It wants to eat me!" He shot back.

"It wants to eat _all_ of us!" Rangiku corrected anxiously.

"Let me try something!" Toshiro announced, breaking away from the circle and jumping onto a table. He took a deep but slow breath, then slowly breathed it back out, coating the Hollow's left arm with a fine layer of frost. The Hollow didn't seem to notice, however, or perhaps didn't even care, since it just advanced onto the group further, who were currently closing their eyes and awaiting their fate as Hollow food.

A sudden, still silence broke through the noise, announcing the arrival of a zanpakuto that sliced through the Hollow's head, purifying it and sending it away. The owner of the sword gently landed on his feet, and the Shinigami nervously opened their eyes to see who their savior was.

"Urahara-san! What are you doing here?" Renji asked in great shock. From behind Urahara peeked out Yoruichi.

"Kurosaki-san was nice enough to inform me of your whereabouts, and I figured you'd need some sort of help in fighting Hollows since a lot of these targets have been getting stronger and stronger. However, I managed to catch caught a bit of that fight earlier, and I must say, you all seem to have this handled easily!" He smiled slightly, then lifted his hat's brim. "Also, is that really you, Matsumoto-san?"

"It sure is!" Rangiku answered happily, flipping her hair.

"The last time I saw you, you were a small little thing, only 122 years old! It's nice to see you aged healthily. How old are you now?"

"It's nice to see you again as well! As you can see, the Soul Society didn't implode on itself after your exile. Also, I'm 322 now."

"You two know each other?" Toshiro asked in amazement, and Rangiku nodded.

"Sure do! I was the inspiration for many of his experiments!" She said proudly, posing.

"You've gotten so old, yet barely look a day over twenty-two! I don't know how you guys in Squad 10 manage to keep your youthful looks." Urahara continued teasing.

Meanwhile, Yoruichi jumped over to Orihime, peeking over her shoulder to analyze the severity of Rukia's wound. "Luckily she's not bleeding, else she'd be dead by now." She said seriously, making Orihime gasp and jump in surprise.

"Yoruichi-san! You scared me...!" She said. "Kuchiki-san got hurt in our Hollow fight, so I've been trying to heal her. The cut's really deep though, so it's been hard."

"We can give her some tough bandages at the shop. They're getting ready to leave, so we better get a move-on to catch up!" The purple-haired woman grinned, and Orihime smiled and put her shield down. With some help, she lifted Rukia up off the floor and helped her to walk, and soon the group was on their way to Urahara's shop.

However, in their haste to leave, they all failed to notice a certain black-haired girl hiding in the shadows, wearing a 1990's school uniform and clutching a zanpakuto.

"You don't lie at all, do you, Captain Urahara?" She mused with a small smile, then pulled out a flip-phone and started to dial a number...

#########

Once they got there, Rukia got placed in her own private room so both Orihime and Yoruichi could work on her without being disturbed, while the five Soul Reapers looked around the shop, being extra cautious not to touch anything. After all, it wouldn't help anybody if they accidentally got sick! Urahara went behind his counter and leaned on it, but didn't actually get anything out.

"I have some personal business to attend to, but I trust you five will be alright?" He smiled and left into a another room, not hearing their responses. They continued looking around, wondering what his personal business was, and all collectively ignored the scathing glares given to them by a blonde-haired girl sitting at a table with what looked like a week's worth of food spread out in front of her.

Finally Rangiku got disturbed by the girl's glare and smiled at her brightly, bending over. "Hi there! Are you a friend of his?" She pointed in the direction Urahara went, and the girl scoffed.

"Yeah. A family friend. You could say that." She reached over for a bowl of curry and started eating it messily.

"How cute! Are you an athlete? A track star? Do you run cross-country, or do field?" Rangiku persisted, genuinely being kind to the girl.

"No, I hate sports, and I hate you." The girl kept eating.

"Well I just assumed you did, since you're wearing a track suit..." Rangiku trailed off and scoffed back at the girl, walking away. The girl smiled a bit and resumed her eating. Toshiro, however, had more personal questions for her.

"Are you a Soul Reaper?" He instantly asked. "You have a zanpakuto on your back, yet I've never seen you around anywhere. What Squad are you in, and why are you here in the human world?"

"Back off and mind your own business, Soul Reaper." She spat the word out as if it was poison, the worst possible thing one could possibly hope to be.

"How did you know-" Toshiro started, only to have the girl angrily launch her half-empty bowl of curry at him. He just barely dodged it.

"You're dumb! It's so obvious you're a Soul Reaper! And I don't like them..." That last part was intended as a threat, as she started slowly advancing onto Toshiro, clutching her zanpakuto.

Luckily, Urahara came back into the room at that time, and promptly whacked the girl's head with his fan.

"Hiyori-chan! Leave the customers alone!" He teased, making the petite blonde launch herself at him instead.

"I'm not your 'chan'! And how about they leave me alone, huh? What about that?" The girl, named Hiyori, protested. "Nobody cares about my well-being!"

"Of course they do, your group does. Now finish your lunch." Urahara directed, and after Hiyori stuck her tongue out at him, she sat down and resumed her eating. "Don't mind her, she's just temperamental." He continued brightly. "Her family randomly came to town a few days ago, and it totally surprised me! But it was nice! Her family are close friends of mine. They're still getting accustomed to the town, so if you see any, please say hello for me! They're easy to spot because they all wear vintage clothes."

Toshiro's eyes widened slightly as he recalled the girl at the mall, and wondered if he should bring her up, but then Yoruichi walked out of the back-room and leaned against the wall. "You have one more customer!" She announced before Rukia walked in slowly, looking a lot better but still a bit pale. Her ripped shirt had been nicely sewn-up and hid the three rows of bandages currently in place around in her stomach.

Orihime followed the two, looking cheery but drained.

"I called Ichigo, he's taking us all out for some lunch. Even you, Inoue-san." Rukia said, looking back at Orihime. She simply smiled and nodded. The seven said goodbye to the couple and left, Rukia and Orihime heading to a MOS Burger where Ichigo was waiting outside for them.

"Did you get your clothes?" He asked, but the six shook their heads.

"We were attacked by a Menos," Toshiro stated calmly. "But it wasn't very hard to defeat."

"But Rukia-chan got injured! But she's all better now!" Rangiku blurted out.

"Come on, let's go get some lunch!" Orihime changed the subject happily, running inside ahead of anybody else. Everyone followed her, with Rukia, Ichigo, and herself all settling into a normal routine and ordering their usual.

The other five, however, simply leaned against the wall in a corner, looking really dumbfounded about what they even supposed to do.

"Just go to the counter and order something," Ichigo whispered to them.

"Uh, alright!" Rangiku laughed nervously and went up first. She scanned over the menu, but was unable to find any foods she liked or even recognized. She could tell the cashier was already getting quite impatient with her, so she rambled off the first thing that came to her head: "I want a coffee thingy, whatever that is, one of those meat things on the bread, and I don't want lettuce on it, and I also want one of those boxes filled with those tiny sticks, and ice cream...whatever that is. Did you get all that?" She asked nicely.

"Uh...you're not from around here, are you?" The cashier asked cynically. Rangiku was about to answer that before Ichigo clasped a hand on her mouth.

"No, they're visiting from the countryside to see what the city is like! They don't have things like fast food places there. It's like the 1700's over there!" He laughed. The cashier just rolled his eyes.

"What about you four?" Orihime asked the remaining Shinigami, still looking very nervous around all the bright neon signs and cash registers.

"We'll just have what she's having!" Renji announced, making the cashier roll his eyes again.

"Oh, no coffee for me, please! I want one of those soda things!" Yumichika grinned.

"Perfect! Change mine to that too, please!" Rangiku grinned as well.

"What sizes do you want?" He asked.

"A large of everything!" Renji said with a smile, feeling quite spent from their earlier fight.

Orihime and Rukia picked out a massive booth in the back and set their trays down on it and simply watched Ichigo trying to guide Rangiku and Yumichika in the proper use of the soda fountain.

"Let me see...lemonade sounds good!" Rangiku decided, getting in closer to the button and staring at it, willing it to work.

"You have to push it," Ichigo coaxed, and she pushed it once and let go, resulting in a few drops falling into her cup.

"Whoa, you just push that button and the drink comes out?" Yumichika asked in disbelief.

"You have to keep pushing it though," Ichigo responded in annoyance.

"Okay!" She cheered, continuously pushing the button and letting go, filling her cup only a few drops at a time.

"Hold it down."

"Okay..." She did it that time, and soon her cup was overflowing with lemonade, spilling it onto the floor. "Oh no! I made a mess!"

"I'm sure the staff can clean it up, spills like this probably happen daily. Now get your drink and sit down." Ichigo directed that last part at Yumichika, who was still looking at the different selections.

"I want the fruit punch!" He did the same thing as Rangiku, pushing it and letting it go.

"Hold it down!" Ichigo called to him as he led Rangiku back to the table.

"Oh, right!" He playfully flicked his own forehead and held the button down, letting go just as the drink dangerously went to the brim. He squeezed a lid down on it, then happily ran over to their table, bringing with him his massive pile of food.

"Will you guys be able to eat all of that?" Rukia asked nervously, but the five ignored her as they stared at the strange food in both wonder and confusion.

"What is coffee, anyway?" Toshiro wondered, sipping his mug and making his eyes widen when he felt how hot it was. He blew on it once and it turned cold in a second, and he was able to happily drink it.

"What's on this sandwich?" Renji asked, disassembling it. "I see tomatoes, onions, green peppers...but what's all this sauce? And the yellow square? And this meat?"

"It's beef!" Orihime said happily.

"Ick, meat? Won't we get sick from it then?" Rangiku asked in concern.

"No, it's cooked thoroughly. This business would get in trouble if they served people spoiled or undercooked meat." Ichigo explained, making the five sigh in obvious physical relief.

"What are these sticks though?" Yumichika asked, dumping all of the fries out of their box.

"French fries. They're made from frying potatoes in oil." Rukia explained in a serious tone, drinking her soda.

"And what's ice cream?" Rangiku asked nicely, taking a huge bite. Her eyes widened and she dropped her spoon. "Ah! My head hurts really badly! I-it's cold!"

"What a nightmare," Toshiro commented sarcastically, finishing off his coffee.

"Whoa, this ice cream thing packs a punch! Is it some sort of alcohol in this world?" Renji asked, shivering from his own bite.

"No, it's just...really cold." Rukia commented.

"Really? Let me try! I need a rush!" Ikkaku announced, shoveling three large bites of his ice cream into his mouth. "Wow, this does pack a massive punch! My head is spinning!" He ate more massive bites.

"You won't beat me! I'll eat way faster than you!" Yumichika challenged, shoveling his own ice cream into his mouth faster.

"You might want to slow down a bit..." Orihime suggested in a worried tone.

"Yum, this sandwich is pretty good too!" Rangiku smiled, having ketchup and mustard on her mouth she didn't notice yet.

"And so are these fries!" Renji said, eating his rapidly one after the other.

"Ice cream, huh...? Is it made from real ice?" Toshiro asked, eating a small bite. Unlike the others, however, he wasn't affected, and simply shrugged and kept eating.

"Ice cream is made from both ice and cream! And milk and flavorings! Ichigo explained it to me!" Rukia said with a smile. "As long as none of you are lactose-intolerant, you'll be fine."

The five ignored her as they continued to eat their food quickly, moving onto the next once they finished one. Toshiro started to get affected a few minutes after he ate his ice cream, although instead of a brain freeze, he literally radiated ice: his seat was coated in it.

The three noticed this and their eyes widened. Rukia looked around for anybody who noticed, but the store was mainly empty except for one family who was thankfully sitting on the far end and couldn't see. "Alright, I think you've had enough ice cream for now-!" She tried taking it from him, only to instantly get cold when she touched him. "Eat as much as you want..." She decided, shivering.

"My powers...they're magnified! What's in this?" Toshiro demanded, his breath coming out of his mouth.

"ICE!" Rukia, Orihime, and Ichigo yelled at once.

"You're basically eating flavored ice," Orihime elaborated.

Ikkaku and Yumichika had finished their speed-eating contest and were eating normally now, although still pretty fast. Yumichika was drinking his fruit punch and Ikkaku was eating his fries.

Despite eating much slower, Ichigo and the two girls finished first and threw their trash away, then sat down and continued to watch the Shinigami finish their own meal.

After they finished, they all leaned back in their seats, feeling very sick from both the speed they ate at and the unusual food itself.

"Ugh...I don't feel very good..." Rangiku moaned, holding her stomach.

"Is it possible for a human to die because their guts spilled out? I feel like that's about to happen to me." Ikkaku informed them.

"I'm sure a human could die for many, many reasons!" Yumichika answered.

Really the only person who wasn't slumped over was Toshiro, who was currently shaking in his seat, looking anxious about something.

"Is something wrong?" Orihime asked.

"I don't know! I just suddenly started feeling all energetic and high-strung, you know? Whoa, was that in the ice cream I ate? Wow, I just gotta jump up and down, you know?! Whoa, isn't is just a beautiful day today?!" Toshiro answered brightly, jumping up and down on the booth.

"Captain?" Rangiku asked nervously. "I've never seen you so...energetic."

"It must've been the coffee! He didn't order decaf, and people who have never had espresso before can get in a sort of energy high..." Rukia sighed.

"How long do they last?" Rangiku asked.

"For a whole day, usually."

"Something else I have to deal with, probably." Ichigo sighed in annoyance.

"Oh, isn't it such a beautiful day though? Wouldn't it be nice if we could go ice-skating?" He gasped. "Wanna go ice-skating? Don't worry that it's the middle of September, we can ice-skate whenever we want!" Toshiro suddenly took a deep breath and blew ice all over the floor, coating it in sparkly white. "Let's go!" He cheerfully jumped off the booth and started gracefully gliding across the ice in his shoes.

"Captain Hitsugaya! Get a hold of yourself!" Rangiku demanded, stepping out onto the ice and grabbing him around his waist the second he skated by.

"Hey! Let me go!" He demanded, struggling. The extra weight made Rangiku slip, and she fell hard onto the ice, taking her captain with her.

"Oh dear...!" Orihime said awkwardly.

"So yeah, we better get going now!" Ichigo suggested, picking both of them up off the floor.

"Whoo, that was fun! Let's do it again!" Toshiro cheered, wrestling to get out of Ichigo's hold on him.

"Come on, we gotta take him home before he blows our cover!" Rangiku suggested nervously.

"Luckily he isn't in his Spirit form, otherwise we'd have even more trouble on our hands!" Ichigo agreed with a nod.

"Are you sure that coffee wasn't spiked? Just drinking espresso doesn't have this effect on people," Rukia said.

"Who cares what he drank? We gotta get him outta here!" Renji said, and everyone nodded and ran out of there as fast as they could.

########

Once they got back to Ichigo's place, they promptly laid Toshiro down on the couch and bundled him up with blankets so he wouldn't wander off and accidentally freeze something. After all, that ice cream was still in his system, which resulted in the blankets getting a thin layer of frost on them.

"Come on, Captain, drink some water! It'll get both the ice cream and coffee out of your system!" Rangiku coaxed desperately, waving a glass of it above his head.

"Won't water make him sick though?" Yumichika wondered.

"These questions are making me wonder just how clean everything is in the Soul Society," Ichigo mumbled.

"While he's out like this, we can scour the city for threats," Rukia suggested, taking out her canister.

"Why not? We need some excitement around here." Renji stated, pulling his own out. The four of them popped the tops on their canisters and ate the candy, then promptly got knocked to the floor as their spirit forms came out.

"I've missed my old body! It feels so great to be back in it! Don't I just glow much more brightly in it?" Yumichika asked with a grin.

"We'll be back soon, Ichigo!" Rukia promised, running off with the other three once Ichigo waved goodbye to them.

"What should we do about their bodies?" Orihime asked, carefully stepping over Rukia's.

"Just leave them for now. They have the Gikon in them, so at least they won't rot away." Ichigo said.

"Captain Hitsugaya! Drink this!" Rangiku kept coaxing, getting on the actual couch and holding the water at a dangerously-close angle to his face.

"Fine! If it'll make you stop being so bossy and getting off me, then I'll drink it!~" Toshiro snapped, taking the water from her and gulping it all down in a minute. He gave the empty cup back to her and passed out, falling asleep.

"At least now he'll be quiet," Ichigo grumbled. "I suppose he'll be staying here tonight while he sleeps all that coffee off. Is he a heavy sleeper?"

"How should I know? We don't sleep together!" Rangiku protested. "It's getting pretty late, so I'll just head over to Orihime-san's house!"

"Oh, right! We can make dinner together!" Orihime beamed. "I'm thinking about potatoes and leeks roasted in ketchup, what do you say?"

"Whatever you want!" The two grinned at each other and left, leaving Ichigo with a sleeping Toshiro and the four unconscious bodies still lying on the floor.

Feeling guilty about just leaving them there, and also a bit creeped-out, he decided to prop them up in the hallway so they'd be out of sight from the household's occupants. He picked up Rukia's first and propped hers up in a sitting position, trying to lift her head up but giving up after a few failures of her head just falling forward again. He propped the remaining three up and went to bed himself, hoping they could find them later on in the night when they returned.

#########

The next morning, Ichigo woke up to feeling of several people staring him down-and woke to find he was totally right.

"What the hell are you all doing in my room?! Why were you watching me sleep?!" He demanded angrily, glaring at the four Shinigami.

"Well you weren't waking up, so," Rangiku stated innocently.

"That doesn't answer my question at all!"

"Oh yeah, Captain Hitsugaya's feeling a lot better!"

"We also found several Hollows last night, as well as an Arrancar." Rukia said seriously, changing Ichigo's tone.

"Really? What did they do?" He asked.

"Not much. I don't think they were very strong, they mostly yelled at us for interrupting their work and proclaiming us to be Aizen's property."

"Since they were one of his subordinates, I highly doubt we've seen the last of them." Renji said gravelly.

"They didn't even really fight us, mainly taunted us." Yumichika remembered.

"Hey! I'm hungry! Where's breakfast?" Toshiro demanded from the doorway, holding his head. "What did you guys slip into my drink last night? My head hurts really bad!"

"You were on a coffee and ice-cream high," Rukia said.

"What...?"

"You guys want some breakfast, you're going to have to work for it," Ichigo announced suddenly, jumping out of bed. "You guys need to learn how things work here in the human world. I don't know how things work in the Soul Society, but here, you want something, you work for it!"

"Ichigo!" Rukia said in surprise.

"Work...? What kind of work?" The Shinigami asked in confusion all at the same time.

"Housework! Chores! Follow me and I'll show you all your chores!" Ichigo led the six into the kitchen, where several different stations were set up. He first thrust a bucket full of soapy water and a mop at Toshiro. "You're mopping the floors!"

"Whatever. How hard could something so mundane be?" Toshiro wondered.

"You're washing the dishes!" Ichigo continued, pointing to Rangiku and leading her over to the giant sink filled to the brim with both soapy water and dirty dishes.

"Aw! I can't do that!" She complained. "I don't know how!"

"You're cleaning the bathroom and toilet!" He pointed at Renji, who amazingly had no response for that. "And you two are going to cook breakfast! Any questions?"

"Cooking? I'm not very good with that!" Yumichika decided.

"Why didn't I get a job?" Rukia asked in an almost-cynical tone.

"You're the supervisor! Make sure everyone is doing their jobs!" Ichigo stated, making her face fall. "Get to work!" He went back into his room, and the Shinigami nervously started on their tasks, unsure of how to do anything.

Toshiro decided to stay out of the kitchen for the time being, seeing how it currently held the most amount of people in it, and he didn't need them slipping all over the place. He instead started in the living room,dunking the mop into the bucket and drawing it back out, then slapping it down onto the floor and pushing it back and forth. "Mopping's pretty easy..." He said in surprise. "Maybe if I get this done, I can go back to sleep. I need to catch up all that sleep I lost since I came here!" He mopped a bit faster at that thought.

Renji went into the bathroom and found what he assumed to be the cleaning products already on the sink counter, so he picked up a bottle and went into the bathroom and poured it all over the inside of the bowl, looking around in confusion. "I think I need a sponge for this job..." He looked down at the ground and noticed a certain lion stuffed animal sitting there and picked it up. "Is this what I'm supposed to use? Oh well..." He shrugged and started scrubbing the inside of the toilet bowl with it, making the lion wake up and start to protest.

"What are you doing with me?! Put me down! I'm warning you! Put me down! Put me down!" Kon demanded angrily.

"You can still talk?" Renji asked in surprise, looking at Kon.

"Of course I can still talk! I was never not able to!"

Rukia came in and leaned against the doorway. "How's cleaning the toilet going?" She asked nicely.

"Good I suppose. I'm still not entirely sure what this thing is, but it's getting whiter so that must mean I'm doing a good job!" He answered.

"I believe your friends call it a 'modern chamber pot'," Rukia answered. "Where'd you find that sponge?" She looked a bit closer and her face changed. "Kon?! Is that you?"

"Yes, yes it's me! Save me from this terrible fate, Nee-san!" Kon cried in peril, still coated in the sticky blue liquid.

"Hm, you look better in blue though. It's what you get for hiding out in there!" Rukia answered. "Keep at it though!"

"I get the feeling you two don't get along." Renji commented, plunging Kon back into the toilet bowl and scrubbing with him harder. He looked back at Rukia, only to see her deep in thought about something. "What are you thinking about?"

"That Arrancar we fought last night. I feel bad for lying to Ichigo about what really happened. The Arrancar was a lot stronger than I let on, and would've very nearly destroyed us if those two people hadn't stepped in, with those strange masks. Even though I can't keep secrets from him, I feel strange telling him this. I feel like it would only concern him more than he needs to be." She explained gravely.

"What, that pink-haired freak who showed up in the park? I wouldn't be too concerned about it. He didn't even really attack us himself, he just sprayed some purple goo onto us and made us fight clones of ourselves. Pretty cunning though." Renji recalled. "You can tell him if you want."

"I think I'll keep it to myself for a bit. As long as that Arrancar doesn't target Ichigo or one of his friends or even one of us, we'll be fine!"

"Don't you have more Shinigami to be supervising?" Renji teased.

"I'm sure they're doing a fine job at their chores." Rukia smiled.

However, the remaining Shinigami were not doing very well with their chores, quite the opposite in fact. Rangiku was tasked with washing the dishes, but she was currently washing them very sloppily inbetween her large breasts, spilling water and suds everywhere. "I can't see what I'm doing! Are these dishes clean?" She asked in a worried tone, constantly pulling them out and looking them over. "I can't see any dirt on them...so they must be!"

"What do you guys want for breakfast? I don't care, we're making whatever's in here!" Ikkaku stated, throwing open the freezer. "Hey look, fish! We can just make this! Take it!" He tossed the fish to Yumichika, who freaked out from its cold slimy texture.

"I don't want this! You hold it!" He demanded, throwing the fish back to Ikkaku.

"What? No! I'm looking for more food! You hold it!"

"No, you!"

"You!"

"You!" The fish slipped out of their hands and fell to the floor with a wobble.

"I'm sure it's still good!" Rangiku added unhelpfully from her spot at the sink. Ikkaku simply shrugged and picked it back up.

"You guys would eat anything if you're hungry enough! So why not!" He slapped the fish down on the counter. "We need some rice to go with it too, and tea, and vegetables!" Yumichika simply reached into the fridge and pulled out whatever resembled food he was used to and tossed them to Ikkaku.

"I think that's it!" He announced, looking into the fridge. He opened the cupboard and pulled out a giant pot and a rice cooker, as well as a tea pot.

"Here, I'll cut everything up and you put it on the stove!" Ikkaku stated, and Yumichika nodded as he tried to figure out how to turn the stove on. He didn't have very long to figure it out though, as Ikkaku cut the fish up really fast with two knives and scraped them into the giant pot, and started doing the same for the vegetables.

"Stop, stop, you're getting food everywhere!" Rangiku scolded.

"You're getting suds everywhere!" Ikkaku shot back, throwing the vegetables into the pot. He then threw the rice into the cooker and slammed the top onto it, turning the heat up really high for both.

"Let's brew the tea!" Yumichika suggested, pouring boiling water into the tea pot and pouring the leaves inside and covering the top. "Shouldn't take too long now..."

Meanwhile, Toshiro had finished mopping the floor and looked over his progress, feeling quite proud of himself for mastering a human chore. However, he was lost in thought for most the process, resulting in the water freezing as it hit the ground, so now the whole floor looked like an indoor ice-rink. Being one with his ice powers, however, he didn't notice and dumped the dirty water outside.

At least, he tried to, only to get interrupted by someone walking past. "Hey kid, what do you think you're doing?" They demanded.

"Dumping out my dirty mop water." Toshiro responded in annoyance, dumping it out anyway into the grass.

"Don't you have a sink?"

"Is that what that's for? I just used it to wash my hands," Toshiro asked in pure confusion. The man simply scoffed and continued on his way.

"This generation will be the end of us," He mumbled under his breath, and Toshiro simply rolled his eyes and went back inside and put the bucket up, leaving the mop hanging out a window to dry.

Rukia walked into the living room just as Ichigo came back from the store and they both stopped before nearly slipping and falling on the ice. "What did you do?" Rukia asked in confusion.

"What do you mean? I mopped the floor just like you said." Toshiro answered simply.

"The floor is coated in ice, Hitsugaya! What did you do? This could be dangerous!" Ichigo snapped in annoyance.

"I washed all the dishes!" Rangiku announced happily, running into the living room holding a massive pile of dishes. Rukia and Ichigo's protests came to her too late though, as her foot caught on a kink in the otherwise-smooth ice and she fell down, dropping the plates and shattering them everywhere. "Oh no! I broke the dishes!"

"I cleaned the bathroom for you," Renji announced from the hallway, walking into the living room.

"No, wait Renji! Don't come in here!" Rukia cautioned, but Renji lost concentration to look at her and promptly slipped on the ice as well, dropping the cleaning supplies. Some of their tops came off and spilled further onto the ice.

"Breakfast's done!" Ikkaku announced, running in with a giant pot. Needless to say that pot soon splashed its contents onto everyone else, although what exactly was in it they couldn't tell.

"I made some tea!" Yumichika started before tripping and spilling the tea all over the floor, shattering some of the cups. Somehow he still remained standing. Rukia and Ichigo both covered their faces.

"You guys made a mess of my newly-mopped floor!" Toshiro scolded. "I worked so hard on that! Now I have to mop all over again,"

"NO!" Everyone protested at once.

"Wait until we clean this mess up," Rukia suggested nicely. "We have a lot of things to clean up..." Everyone sighed in annoyance.

###########

After school the next day, Ichigo revealed to everyone what he had gotten for them at the store the other day: more clothes and personal care products! He simply threw a bag at each Shinigami since Rukia helped him personalize them for everyone's wants and needs. They also brought two friends from school over: Orihime and Uryu.

"We should probably get started on our homework. Even though we just got back from a break, they've been piling it on us." Rukia suggested, taking her own books out to study from.

"Whoa, look at all the different beauty products they have here! They have a lotion and cream for everything, don't they?" Rangiku gushed, looking through her bag. She instantly pulled out a compact and red lipstick and started applying it to her lips while looking in the compact's mirror.

"I think we focus more on our homework, or even more preferably, that fight a few nights ago that Kuchiki-san informed me about." Uryu stated calmly, not even making a move from the front door.

"You guys got into a fight?" Ichigo asked instantly, looking at the six Soul Reapers. "With who?"

"It wasn't important, it was just an Arrancar we ran into in the park. He was definitely a servant to Aizen, since he told us soon we'd be his test subjects and bowing down to Aizen, but in terms of power level I dare say he wasn't very powerful." Renji explained.

"He was strong enough that we would've died if those two guys hadn't intervened at the last second, however." Rukia explained further.

"I remember them saying this particular Arrancar had the ability to spray goo onto them and create clones of themselves. Violent clones, so they had to fight them. A distraction tactic, no doubt used so he could build up his own powers. However, they weren't very specific about the people who helped them." Uryu said.

"Two people? What did they look like?" Ichigo asked.

"It was dark, so we couldn't see very well, but I could tell one was a guy and one was a girl. The girl was dressed in a 1970's jumpsuit and donned some sort of mask, then started literally kicking the clones around and then the Arrancar. As for the guy, he also put a mask on, but didn't fight too much. He mainly just payed attention to the girl." Rukia recalled in a serious tone.

"A mask...?" Ichigo wondered to himself, thinking about a certain incident similar to that a few nights ago. "Did they say anything to you?"

"No, the girl just smiled at us and thanked us for giving her some excitement again, and the guy simply nodded, then warned us the next time we get in trouble, they wouldn't come to our rescue." Renji stated.

Ichigo's eyes widened when he realized the group his friends had encountered, and he wondered when they had gotten so active in the town. Or perhaps they'd always been active and he just never noticed because they never asked for him before?

"I'll tell you one thing, that I doubt we've seen the last of his stupid face around here though. Next time he might even bring powerful friends with him." Ikkaku grumbled.

"If he does show his face around here again, he has me to deal with." Ichigo promised. "I'll make sure he never bothers Karakura Town again!"

"We need to focus on our homework now, guys." Rukia stated.

"This homework is so hard though! And there's so much of it!" Rangiku whined, slamming her four heavy textbooks onto the coffee table.

"Because you five are in all the advanced classes. It makes sense, since you are all much older than the three of us and have had years and years of experience and knowledge prior to now." Uryu said, simply pulling out his own homework a bit further away from the others, as if he was afraid of cross-contamination or something.

"I got in trouble today because my literature teacher didn't like how I argued with her against the meaning of the book she was explaining. When she asked me why I knew so much, I simply said I was close to that author. And I had to stay after-class!" Renji mentioned.

"Hey, that happened to me too in my history class! My teacher made me retake my test just because I answered a question about Emperor Meiji's personal life as: 'He was such a nice guy and could hold his liquor so well!'" Rangiku said in amazement.

"'Name five important, nation-changing events from the past hundred years.' Well, that's easy." Toshiro read to himself, writing away.

"You guys must've known a lot of cool people in your profession, huh?" Orihime asked nicely.

"It depends. Since humans can't see us, unless they have spiritual powers like you three, we don't have a lot of company in the human world when we come to claim souls. Of course, that's not saying people can't see us, and we've met plenty of people over the years who could. Needless to say, those people are dead now." Toshiro said coldly.

"How did you guys die?" Orihime asked in a curious tone, making everyone drop what they were doing and stare at her in shock.

"Inoue-san! You cannot just ask people a personal question like that. What if they did not want to discuss it? You could've brought up some bad thoughts!" Uryu scolded her.

"Well I don't mind telling people how I died! I died in 1701, due to alcohol poisoning! I drank some poisoned alcohol, and then I died! I don't think it was intentionally poisoned though, I think it was an accident!" She explained brightly. "Also, I originally died in Germany! My appearance changed drastically too!" Rangiku said cheerfully. "I've been dead for 322 years!

"All of our appearances seem to dramatically change when we die, even if we don't remember what we looked like alive. You just know you didn't look like this alive." Toshiro said. He noticed everyone staring at him and he took a deep breath. "I was really reckless when I was alive, I remember that much. My parents told me not to take the car out for a joyride because one, I was too little, and two, it was just too dangerous overall. People back then didn't know as much about road safety as they do now, but they knew when the roads were as icy and slick as they were that night, you don't go out driving. One cold night in December, I snuck out and drove the car right into a street lamp. It was quite out of the way too, and I had broken several bones in my body. But I couldn't just get out and look for help, and nobody knew where I was, so they couldn't come find me. It didn't take me very long to end up just freezing to death that night."

"That's so sad!" Orihime cried. "You seem really young too..."

"And if you're wondering how freezing to death feels, I don't know. I don't remember that part. I just remember waking up shivering and freezing the ground I walked on. First chance I got, I looked in a lake of water-my looks had changed forever, and so had my control of the elements. Now, I could control ice." He shrugged.

"When did you die?"

"Back in 1901. I'm currently 113 years old."

"You remember a lot more about your death than I do, Captain!" Rangiku noticed.

"I remember mine really well too!" Yumichika piped up. "It wasn't as glamorous as being frozen though. I was born and raised in Taiwan, growing up around the same time Japan was expanding its borders and looking at nations like Taiwan. When I was considered old enough to join the military, I did so, and soon found myself fighting against hundreds of Japanese soldiers, intent on taking my nation away from me. I won every battle. Except for one hand-to-hand fight. **** shot me right in the heart before I even got a chance to pull my own gun out, and then bashed my head in with the end of their gun. When I first arrived in the Soul Society, my whole forehead was bleeding and my chest had a hole in it. It still does, but no way you'll be seeing that! I cleaned myself up quite a bit since my arrival too. That was back in 1888, so I've been dead for about...221 years!" He explained, flipping his hair.

"Is your scar still there?" Orihime asked.

"Yes, but you're not seeing it." He answered defensively.

"I don't remember my death very well...I think it was the 1920's or 1910's or something like that. I don't remember the nation or anything, just that there was a riot and I somehow got caught in the middle of it. I think I might've been stabbed to death, the details are really fuzzy." Renji said, working on his homework. "It makes sense to me."

"What does it matter how or when I died? The point is that I can fight all I want and never have to worry about something as trivial as a grave injury!" Ikkaku grinned.

"Yeah, now that we're dead, it takes a lot more to kill us, which means we can push our limits further than humans can!" Rangiku gushed.

"Although to die a second time by the same cause seems to be a bit silly," Toshiro mumbled.

"How about you, Rukia-san?" Orihime asked nicely, looking over at the black-haired Shinigami.

"Me? I'm the youngest Shinigami there, I'm only 75 years old. I died back in 1931 from malnourishment. I starved to death, and now I'm always hungry. I can never feel satisfied, and I can never gain weight or get taller. I'm doomed to forever resemble a young teenager." She said calmly, and everyone went silent and returned to their work, dropping that depressing topic. A few minutes later, however, she smirked slightly. "It also means I can do this."

Without warning, she extended her left arm to an unnatural length and grabbed a book off the bookshelf that was on the other side of the room. She carefully retracted her arm and held the book with a smile.

"What the hell?!" Was Ichigo's instant response. "How long could you do that for?! And how come you never showed me?"

"You never asked," Rukia grinned more. "I've been able to do this for as long as I remember. It was quite popular back in the day, Soul Reapers from my Squad would always ask me to fetch them far-away things. My old lieutenant loved it too, he would purposely drop his shoes down hills and ask me to get them for him."

"What does that have to do with your death?" Ichigo demanded.

"I don't know, actually." Rukia admitted, extending her arm once more and putting the book back.

They all went back to working on their homework, although soon, Rangiku perked up again.

"We should totally have a study party! I heard some girls at school talking about one at school today! We could order...uh...fast food! That fast food we had the other day was so good! I want more!" She sighed happily.

"Of course! We'll go get you some!" Orihime brightened, motioning to Uryu.

"I have no more homework, so why not?" He adjusted his glasses and left with her.

"So, did you guys enjoy your first ride on public transit?" Ichigo asked nicely, and the Shinigami promptly shook their heads.

"I mean, I had fun, but Captain Hitsugaya didn't!" Rangiku smiled.

"The ride was really bumpy today and I ended up throwing up all over the place," Toshiro grumbled. "But let's not focus on that."

"Why not? It was so cute!" Rangiku teased.

"Public transit will do that to a person," Ichigo grinned.

"You could've just walked to school, you know. Ichigo and I walk to school all the time." Rukia suggested.

"I thought we were too far away, so we took the train." Toshiro stated, getting back to work on his homework.

Everyone else worked diligently until both Orihime and Uryu returned with two separate bags and a giant pizza box. "I got Taco Bell!" Orihime said happily, tossing her bag onto the table.

"And I got Burger King and Pizza Hut." Uryu said calmly, gently setting his food down onto the coffee table. The Soul Reapers' eyes grew wide at all the new sights and smells and dove into the bags, eating hungrily.

"It's so greasy!" Rangiku noticed as she ate more fries.

"They certainly are energetic eaters, huh?" Rukia teased, calmly eating a slice of pizza.

"They are messy." Uryu mentioned calmly, yet still disgusted.

The Soul Reapers kept eating, all conquering the big pizza for last. Ichigo was getting quite sick of their voracious eating habits and grinned inwardly as he thought of a way to make them control their portions better.

"Don't eat so much fast food! Otherwise, you'll all get fat! And then you'll be useless Shinigami, since nobody wants a fat Shinigami fighting Hollows!" He threatened with a grin.

"Nonsense, I won't get fat! All my food goes straight to my bust!" Rangiku reassured him with a breast bounce.

"We've been working out for literally hundreds of years, some tiny bits of food won't change that!" Yumichika flipped his hair.

"All the grease will make you get pimples." Ichigo tried again, and both Yumichika and Rangiku dropped their food and felt their faces in a panic.

"Where's a mirror? I have to know right away!" She cried, running off.

"Wait for me!" Yumichika ran after her.

Ichigo sighed. "You guys really should control your portion sizes regardless though. You're so obsessed with fast food it's scary."

"Because it's good!" Renji grinned.

Both Rangiku and Yumichika came back from the bathroom, but instead of sitting down and eating more junk, they hightailed it into the kitchen and came back with a plate full of carrots that they shared. They kept glaring at Ichigo whenever they took a bite.

"Tomorrow after school we might head out somewhere and go train. From the sounds and looks of it, we're still woefully weak to stand up to Arrancar threats, and that's the whole purpose of sending us here! So we gotta shape up." Toshiro said, eating some chilly mashed potatoes.

"I don't have a problem with that as long as you guys don't get noticed by civilians. Go out into the forest or somewhere secluded and remote. If you can't find one, I'm sure Ishida-san can help you out." Ichigo stated.

"I will only help because we have a common enemy," The Quincy warned.

"And don't forget to clean yourselves up after school! I didn't buy those personal care products for no reason!" Ichigo continued in annoyance.

"I can't wait to use it all! Humans care a lot for appearances, don't they?" Rangiku asked.

"I suppose so," Rukia said in a bored tone.

#############

Just as they promised, they showed up to Ichigo's house before they started their training to take a shower, or a bath, which they were more familiar with. Rangiku decided to go first simply because she was the only girl in the group, and shut herself up in the bathroom. Five minutes later, however, Ichigo was treated to: "ICHIGO-SAN! How do I get the water? Don't you just fill the tub up with a bucket?"

He got up and talked through the bathroom door: "See those silver knobs on the bathtub rim? Red is for hot and blue for cold. Just turn them to the right to turn them on and to the left to turn them off. And don't forget to stop the tub up too!" Afterwards, he left,and he figured Rangiku got the hang of it since she didn't ask him for help again. She spent forever in there taking a bubble bath, playing with all the new accommodations humanity had made in indoor plumbing in the last 300 years.

Once she finally came out, Ichigo was awaiting her with a sour look. "You took a long time."

"So? Don't I look so much better now? Look, I'm glowing!" She flipped her hair. "I used like three different shampoos and four different conditioners for it! Plus I got to brush my teeth and put perfume on!" She was wearing the outfit Orihime bought for her a few days ago; the yellow sweater and dark violet pants. She also tied a pink scarf around her waist and had her usual necklace on.

"Did you guys find a place to train yet?"

"Of course! It's a place out in the middle of the forest with a river by it. It's so nice and quiet! Nobody will bother us there! I better go claim it before someone else does! See ya!" She ran off, leaving the bathroom open for whoever wanted it. The remaining guys had run off though so Ichigo had to run through the house tracking them down, and the first one he found was Toshiro, sitting on Ichigo's bed reading a book.

"Bath. In. Now." He demanded.

"A bath? Alright." Toshiro said in an unamused tone, carefully closing his book and carefully putting it away. "Do you have a well anywhere around here? I need to fill the tub up, don't I?" He asked, looking around.

"I don't have a well! We have indoor plumbing now, which means you just turn some knobs and the water comes out. Plus you can instantly choose between hot or cold." Ichigo explained.

"Really? We had something like that when I was alive, although it wasn't very wide-spread. I don't remember if my house had one or not." Toshiro stated, jumping off the bed.

"And don't take too long. You guys don't have all day to train."

"I don't take forever to bathe! I usually just get in and get out." Toshiro promised, leaving the room. As he bathed, Ichigo picked out an outfit for him that he figured Orihime picked out, since it was a bright red T-shirt with tight yellow jeans. He presented the outfit to Toshiro once he came out of the bathroom, but he simply held his hand out and walked away. "That's not the outfit I picked out for myself," He explained coldly. When he came out of Ichigo's room, he was dressed in a white button-up shirt, a black vest and scarf, black leather gloves, and black ripped jeans with a chain hanging off. He also had white sneakers. "I think the look would flatter my hair style."

Once he left, Ichigo forced the remaining three into the bath and sent them out the door once they had dressed, but Yumichika decided to take his sweet time getting ready, much like Rangiku. This basically halted was should've been a very quick process.

"Which conditioner would smell the nicest? Kiwi-strawberry or tangerine-orange?" He asked Ichigo from inside the bathroom.

"Which one do you want?" Came Ichigo's answer from outside the door.

"I don't know! The orange one promises to make my hair really strong and resistant to tangles, but the strawberry one promises to make my hair shiny! I want the strawberry one!"

"You guys don't have all day to train, I hope you realize. The more time you guys waste here is time wasted on your training." Ichigo reminded him, but he got no answer.

############

Meanwhile, both Rangiku and Toshiro were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their friends when they were alerted to the presence of yet another Arrancar, but unlike some of their other fights, this one had a high spiritual pressure and therefore, promised a challenge.

"Hey, what do we have here? A lady and her mister? How old-fashioned! It'll be all the more fun when I crush you!" The Arrancar smiled, placing his hands behind his back.

"That's what you think, but unfortunately for you, you got some tough fighters!" Rangiku mocked, pulling out her Gikon canister. Toshiro took her lead and together they popped them open, then broke free of their Gigai, then told them to hide.

"Soul Reapers!" The Arrancar exclaimed, clearly surprised. "Well then, I won't hold back either!" He slipped part of his top down, revealing a fancy '6' tattooed on his hip.

"You're an Espada?" Toshiro asked.

"Yup! I am Luppi, the 6th Espada! Pleased to meet your acquaintance!" He grinned at Rangiku. "Especially yours, lady! You got a pretty sexy body there!"

"Why don't you just leave this town alone?" Rangiku demanded, pulling out her Zanpakuto.

"Awwwww, but that wouldn't be very much fun, now would it? And I don't want to make this boring!" He instantly charged at Toshiro, who blocked his assualt with his sword. "Isn't anyone here going to relase their Bankai? I want a challenge!" He lamented, and Toshiro lowered his Zanpakuto.

"I will, just for you." He promised, unleashing it and covering the trees above them with a layer of ice. "Besides, you forgot, it's two against one. You have no chance against us."

"Is that what you think?" Luppi grinned, unleashing his own Rescurricion.

"He has tentacles!?" Rangiku gasped from the sidelines, and Luppi grinned at her.

"Pretty impressive, huh? How about I give you a demonstration?" He threw a tentacle out at her and wrapped her up in it tightly, squeezing her tighter and tighter every minute. "If I squeeze you harder, will your top pop off?"

"Stop...it!" Rangiku demanded, still struggling against his force.

"Matsumoto!" Toshiro yelled, rushing over to her only to get blocked by another one of Luppi's tentacles.

"If you want your lady back, you're going to have to fight me for her!" He grinned, and Toshiro glared at him.

"So be it!" He sliced away one of the nearby tentacles with an icy arm, making Luppi choke.

"Who said you could get all slicy, hm?" He teased, shooting out another tentacle that Toshiro also dodged.

"The Captain did! What I say goes!" He unleashed one of his more powerful Bankai attacks, involving encasing Luppi inside a giant tunnel of ice. Afterwards, he sighed and caught Rangiku as she was released from the tentacle and nearly plummeted to the ground. "Are you okay?" He asked nervously, and she smiled.

"Oh, my hero!" She jokingly swooned, easily regaining her footing in the air.

Luppi managed to break through the ice, a look of sheer anger twisting up his femnine face. "You think this is over, just because you managed to gain the upper-hand? It's not! Just remember my face, because the next time you see it, it'll be spitting on yours!" He laughed and the vanished, making Toshiro sigh and put away his Bankai.

Afterwards, the two jumped back down onto the ground and slid easily back into their Gigai, Rangiku stretching. "What a rush! I didn't think any of the Arrancars would actually try to engage us in battle though."

"What did you expect them to do? Give us lollipops and sing us a song?" Toshiro asked bitterly.

"Of course not, silly! I just thought they'd observe Earth and humans from afar instead of directly challenging them. We'll definitely have to inform the others of this once they get here."

"Looks like you'll get your chance," Toshiro stated, pointing out the shadowy figures of the remaining three Shinigami running up to greet them.

"What happened?" Renji asked.

"We had a run-in with an Arrancar. It's okay, we easily managed to send him running." Toshiro explained. "We should tell Ichigo and his friends what happened. He pulled out the cell phone from his pocket, only to flip it open and stare at it in confusion. "Um...how do I use this thing again?" He blindly pressed a button and got startled by his loud ringtone blaring out and desperetly searched for the button to stop it.

"Are we really going to be alright here?" Renji couldn't help but to sigh, and Rangiku giggled.

"We'll be fine! I have total faith in us!" She looked over at the setting sun, painting the sky orangish-red. "There's one thing that's the same no matter what-the sunset." She sat down on a rock to admire it.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Yumichika grinned and sat beside her.

"See? We'll be perfectly fine!"

Toshiro finally managed to shut his phone off and pocketed it with a disgusted face, making Rangiku giggle harder. "Like I said, perfectly fine."


End file.
